Statesman's Journal

Editorial Blog

3:29 p.m.
A weekend of winners & losers [see # 7]
Thursday, January 24, 2008

Thanks for your suggestions for winners and losers. We have so many items that we'll run some on Friday and more on Monday. Here is a rough draft of what we're looking at so far:

1.WINNER: Jayne Downing. Her work as executive director of the Mid-Valley Women’s Crisis Center has a profound impact on the community. This week she was recognized with the 200 ATHENA Award for professional excellence, community service and leadership.

LOSER: Salem-Keizer School District reserves. For the second consecutive year, the district violated its own policy by accumulating larger-than-necessary reserves. Why wasn’t the money spent on deferred maintenance, which district officials imply has reached crisis levels? Or on reducing class sizes, as the public has demanded? Or simply returned to taxpayers?

2.WINNER: CCTV. Salem residents with cable TV or the Internet have a homegrown, worthwhile alternative to the Hollywood writers’ strike. Capital Community Television provides three channels of local government, arts, sports, talk and other programs, along with streaming video on www.cctvsalem.org.

3.WINNER: A new state senator for Marion, Linn and Clackamas and Marion. Sen. Roger Beyer, R-Molalla, abruptly resigned, so county commissioners are moving quickly to replace him before the legislative session starts Feb. 4. Commissioners will choose the new senator Monday at a public meeting starting at 6 p.m. in Room 121 of the Chemeketa Community College Santiam Annex, just off Highway 22 and Golf Club Road.

LOSER: Oregon Health & Science University. It’s difficult to escape the feeling that OHSU’s ambitions have outpaced wise, conservative financial management. Now it faces a potential $30 million annual deficit following a court ruling that lifted its liability cap on malpractice awards.

4.WINNER: Kevin Boss. He’s gone from playing football at small-college Western Oregon to becoming the New York Giants’ expected starter at tight end for the Feb. 3 Super Bowl.

5.WINNER: F-22A fighter jets. The Pentagon now favors manufacturing more F-22A Raptors, following the grounding of F-15s for inspections of structural defects. Rep. Darlene Hooley had joined the Oregon National Guard, which provides air security over the Pacific Northwest, in requesting more Raptors.

LOSER: Unwinterized lawn sprinklers. Some unknowing, or lazy, Salem residents and businesses forgot to turn off (and drain) their automatic sprinkler systems this winter. The result: icy sidewalks and streets as the runoff froze.

6.WINNER: Linfield College’s 150th birthday. The college launches its sesquicentennial celebration on Wednesday, 150 years to the day that the Oregon Territorial Legislature signed the charter for the Baptist College at McMinnville.

LOSER: A childish, temperamental lawmaker. The Colorado House for the first time censured one of its own, Rep. Douglas Bruce, who kicked a newspaper photographer who took his photo during a session-opening prayer on Jan. 14. Bruce refused to apologize and compared himself to actor Jimmy Stewart’s role in the 1939 movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

7.WINNER: The demise of Oregon’s weapons of mass destruction. The Umatilla Chemical Depot has incinerated the last of its U.S. military rockets containing the nerve agent VX. Next it will start burning VX artillery weapons.

LOSER: Fred Thompson. The ex-presidential candidate was cast as “lazy like a fox,” but he turned out to be neither a cagey fox nor a persistent turtle.

WINNER: A new freeway bridge across the Columbia River. The governors of Washington and Oregon have agreed to work toward a new, congestion-easing Interstate 5 bridge. One of the Columbia bridges dates to 1917.

WINNER: Transfer days. Higher education officials are visiting all of Oregon’s community colleges to work with students there on continuing their education at four-year institutions. The session at Chemeketa Community College will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 8.

WINNER: Oregon Cultural Trust. Oregon businesses and individuals donated a record $3.5 million last year, a 20 percent increase. The money returns to them in two ways — as a credit on their taxes and, most important, in community grants to promote arts, history and other cultural programs throughout Oregon.

LOSER: Ignoring the Bill of Rights. Jose Padilla, held for 3Πyears under harsh, isolated conditions because the government claimed he was an enemy combatant, has finally been sentenced to a relatively lenient 17-year term. A federal judge said authorities never proved Padilla was a terrorist.

WINNER: Calorie counts on menus. They’ll be required in New York City fast-food joints after March 31, giving customers a simple way to choose healthier meals (or not).

posted by SJ Editorial Board